Starry flounder (Platichthys stellatus) have a very broad geographic distribution around the rim of the north Pacific Ocean. In the eastern Pacific it has been recorded from Los Angeles to the Aleutian Islands, although it is rare south of Point Conception. In the western Pacific it ranges south, from the Bering Sea past the Kamchatka Peninsula and Sea of Okhotsk, and into the Sea of Japan off Korea. Off the west coast of the United States it is found commonly in nearshore waters, especially in the vicinity of estuaries. It has a quite shallow bathymetric distribution, with most individuals occurring in waters less than 80 m, although specimens have been collected off the continental shelf in excess of 350 m (Ralston 2005).

The starry flounder (Platichthys stellatus) is distributed along the Pacific Coast from Point Conception, California, to Alaska, with 93% of reported catches on the U.S. west coast taken in shallow waters. For management, this stock previously has been included in a general "other flatfish" category. Separate assessments were made for the southern area (California) and northern area (Oregon and Washington) because of substantial differences in relative abundance trends in the two areas, as estimated from commercial logbook data (Ralston 2005).

A full stock assessment was conducted in 2005, covering the population of starry flounder residing along the west coast of the United States, from Point Conception (lat. 34°30’ N) to Cape Flattery (lat. 48°30’ N). This is the first fishery evaluation of starry flounder (Platichthys stellatus) and separate models were developed for the northern and southern areas. For both analyses the statistical assessment model (SS2 version 1.18) was configured to estimate population characteristics for the period 1970-2004.

There is little information on regional variation in stock structure, Ralston 2005 assumes that starry flounder on the U. S. west coast are all members of a common breeding population with similar biological characteristics.